I am looking to get a freezer to keep in the garage for storing venison. Any input on frost free vs. manual defrost? I have been told meat lasts much longer in a manual defrost b/c the temps rise to high in frost free causing a slight amt of defrost on the meat and then refreezing. I think i will need an upright for space purposes.

Also, any comments on how long venision can be stored without degradation of taste and nutritional value? One guy told me the nutrition is gone after 6-8 months, though the meat will taste fine.

How do you keep you extra meat?

The manual defrost freezer is deffinately better than auto due to the exact reasons you stated. I sell appliances for a living and would never push a frost free for that reason. As far as storing venison, I keep it for a year plus sometimes and it is fine. I make sure it is double wrapped nice and tight and I never have a problem with freezer burn. The only recommendation I have for you on putting a freezer in the garage is to have some sort of heat in the garage or some heat tape on the bottom of the compressor to keep it warm in the winter so the oils don't get coagulated and burn out the compressor from hard starts. If you live in a warm climate 50 degrees and above, I wouldn't worry about it.

I wrap all of my meat twice and then vaccum seal it. It keeps for at least a year and a half. I have never had it last longer than that.

Where would the nutrition go? I don't know, but how would the protein just go away after some period of time?

We eat ours within a month or two after killing them. Dont ever worry about it.

I have a munual frost freezer and it does a pretty good job. I would recommend an upright vs a chest....an upright is easier to get the meat in and out.

I normally kill 4-6 deer a year and I keep the for about 12 months. At month 10 or 11 I normally don't have much left to worry about. If I do, I make the rest into jerky.

Tealboy,
Look @ getting a vacuum sealer along w/your freezer. I have been using the vacuum sealer for a couple of years w/great success. I portion out steaks, whole cuts, & sausage. I am just finishing up last yr's venison, & when I cut the package, the meat is as red as the day I sealed it up. I did find that when I vacuum sealed brats already packaged in a regular plastic wrap, that some did get frost on them. I think that was due to air space between the brats. This year I will take them out of their package & vacuum seal them. According to the manufacturer, meat can last for several years frozen, w/o any deterioration. Just another note, that yesterday I cut openvacuum sealed pork steaks, that were defrosted on Nov. 17th, & they were fine. It's the O2 that turns the meat a grey color, & void spacing that allows meat to be freezer burned. Another thought is that u can put marinade in w/the meat, freeze it, then seal the bag. Man, it is unbeleiveably good eatn. Good Luck.

I use a manual defrost chest freezer, and wrap all my venison in freezer paper. I usually just single wrap, using the "butcher wrap" method. I regularly eat venison that has been frozen for a year, and it is just fine. I am not a fan of those vaccum sealers, I've seen many times where the seal has failed. Also, the material and the machine are expensive.

Can it.

We have defrosted venision, cut it into chunks and canned it. You can keep it canned for a loooong time.

any upright or chest freezer that you would buy for residential use would be a manual defrost unit . the only automatic defrost would be in a combination refrigerator/freezer

thx for the input. By the way Bob, most of the upright freezers are frost free that I have seen at lowes, sears, homedepot, etc. though it is not hard to also find manual defrost uprights. Virtually all chest freezers are manual, though a few are now frost free, very few.